Can't Be Found Till You Were Lost

Home

I was running through the woods, back home. As I ran leaves crunched beneath my feet. The trees are almost bare. A red fox ran in front of me, diving into its den. I lived with my younger brother and sister. They're both 7 years old in 3rd grade. I'm 16 and our parents died about a year ago. We're not quite sure how or what happened, but they never came home.

We had no family members to go to. Refused to be in foster care. So now we are living in a tent in the middle of the woods.

I finally saw the tent. Slowing down, I saw movement inside. Our tent isn't as small as most would think. It can fit up to 6 people, still have room to move around. When I went in I called, "Jordan! Noah! I'm home!"

The two of them came running.

"Dillan, can we go into town with you next time?" asked Jordan.

"You guys go into town to go to school almost everyday."

I knew that's not what she meant but she doesn't know that whenever I go into town our parents old friends always ask how they're doing and I have to pretend that they are still with us. I honestly don't think they can handle that.

Noah was sitting down in the corner tossing his old baseball into the air. The baseball our father gave to him. I hate it when he does that, because whenever he does, he's always thinking about our deceased parents. He took the news the hardest, and he still will wake up crying for mom and dad, a year later.

Jordan on the other hand is nothing like our brother, well except for the fact that they're twins. She cried for like 30 minutes then went to their room and took one thing from our father and one thing from our mother. She also sleeps like a baby.

"What's for dinner? I'm hungry," moaned Noah, putting down the baseball.

"Soup and crackers," I said, grabbing the bag I brought home this morning, the lighter, a lantern and a pot. Heading outside to make a fire to cook the soup over, I called, "You guys stay inside."

I had some extra firewood and lit it with the lighter. Placed the pot on top and added the soup.

Then I heard leaves crunching and sticks breaking. I turned my head to find the only person that knows about our parents, running over.

"Dillan! I was wondering...If my older sister could watch the twins...Maybe we could go see a movie," Brooke said with the biggest smile ever.

"Brooke, you know I can't trust anyone to watch Jordan and Noah besides you. They might say something about our parents being dead. And we can be taken away and put into foster care."

"I know. I know but the only time we get to hang out is at school or here. I just wanted to do something else for once."

"Brooke!!" Jordan called running out of the tent.

"Hey, little one, what's up?" Brooke asked.

"Nothing. What are you doing here? We're about to eat dinner."

"I just stopped by to say, hello. But I'm going now. So, bye," Brooke kissed Jordan on her forehead and ran off back into the woods.

"Jordan, go get my cooking mittens."

Jordan ran inside and came back a minute later with the mittens.

"Here you go," she said and ran back inside.

I put them on, grabbed the pot, lit the lantern, put out the fire and went inside with the soup.

"Noah, get the bowls, please. Jordan set the table."

We have a small, foldable table and chairs, about six bowls, plates, spoons, etc. We also have one blow-up mattress, some games and books. So it's not impossible to live, but we have little money from my job at the pet shop in town. Our only light is from candles and lanterns. Everyday I try to get Jordan and Noah to sleep in about 30 minutes after dinner. And they get up at 4:30 to get ready for school. We go to Brooke's house to take showers because her parents are gone by 4:00 and her sister is gone by 5:00 to get to college.

We sat down and ate in silence. The only noise is the animals in the night.

After dinner I told them, "Guys, go get ready for bed. We have school tomorrow. Pick out your clothes."

And they ran off, through the sheets that separate the bedroom from the rest of the tent. While cleaning up the bowls and putting them in a bin full of soapy water, I noticed that there was movement outside again and light coming from a flashlight. I know that it can't be Brooke, she would be home by now.

"Turn off all the lights!" I called loud enough that only Jordan and Noah could hear me.

They did as they were told, while I went outside with a lit lantern and a pocket knife. Walking closer to the figure I noticed something strange about it. It was a young boy, cuts and bruises all over his face, arms and legs. Dirt and blood all over. He was limping to our tent, then suddenly stopped. The last light went off inside the tent. He looked over to me and started limping towards me. And fell.

I rushed over to him, "Are you okay?"

His head turned towards me, "Do you have somewhere I could sleep?"

"Yeah. Just put your arms around my neck and I'll carry you."

He did as I asked.

I lit two lanterns, set the boy down and called, "Noah get me a towel and band-aids!"

"Okay!" Noah called back.

I tied my caramel colored hair back in a ponytail and rolled up my sleeves, grabbed a bin and filled it up with water.

"I'm going to set you down in this bin of water, okay?"

He mumbled something that sounded like, uh-huh.

Noah came over to me with the towel and band-aids I had asked for.

"What's your name?" Noah asked the boy.

"Jay."

"Okay, Jay just try to relax," I said, as I started to take off his shirt to find out where the blood was coming from.

There was. Three gashes along his chest.

I washed away all the dirt and blood, before I put a giant band-aid on the cut and wrapped an ace-bandage around it.

Noah just watched, eyes wide.

I picked up Jay and carried him to the bed, Noah close behind.

"Go to sleep, I will be back in a few minutes. But I have to clean up the bloody water first,"

The next day as we got ready to go to Brooke's, I realized something was wrong.

"Noah. Jordan, where's Jay?"

We spent the next hours looking for Jay in the woods. We decided that we weren't going to school today, we spent the whole day looking for Jay.

We found him, around 2:30, lying in a tree, passed out. Noah and I climbed up and got him out of the tree.

Back at the tent Jay started to wake up.

"Where am I?" Jay asked, confused, then his face brighten with realization.

"We're at our tent," I answered. "Why were you in a tree?"

"I sleep walk and talk," he grunted holding his once again bloody stomach.

"Jordan, grab me a new ace-bandage and some band-aids."

As I unraveled Jay's old ace-bandage I noticed something, there was a note.

It said.......

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Sorry for the short chapter. More will come soon, and will hopefully be longer. Hope you enjoyed.

P. S. The genre may or may not change as the story goes along. I'm not that skilled of a writer so bare with me. Thank you. Hoped you enjoyed.

•••MM